And this week, the GOP tax bill passed by Congress repealed Obamacare’s individual mandate, which requires almost all Americans to carry health insurance or pay a tax penalty. President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law on Jan. 3.

Last year, 9.2 million Americans signed up for Obamacare individual health insurance plans through Healthcare.gov, or 400,000 fewer than this year. Both numbers exclude the millions more who enrolled in Obamacare through state-run marketplaces, like those in New York, California, and about a dozen other states.

In November, when the Obamacare signup window for 2018 opened, the pace of enrollment nearly doubled last year’s. But the urgency appeared to dwindle in the following weeks, necessitating a massive last-minute push non-government forces to get close to the previous year’s enrollment numbers.

Ultimately, that surge materialized with more than 4.1 million Americans selecting Obamacare plans through Healthcare.gov between Dec. 10 and 15. That accounts for nearly half the number of people who signed up during the entire six-week open enrollment period, according to HHS.

Nearly 2.4 million enrollees are new customers. Many experts expressed their surprise about the enrollment numbers released on Thursday, like Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the nonpartisan health think tank Kaiser Family Foundation.

I confess to being very surprised that ACA marketplace enrollment is down only slightly. That didn't seem possible with a 90% reduction in outreach, an enrollment period cut in half, and a constant refrain that the program is dead.